Widows

Score:  A-

Directed by Steve McQueen
Starring Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo, Michelle Rodriguez, Liam Neeson, et. al.
Running time:
Rated R

Long Story Short:  Widows, a heist film, is an abrupt change of pace for the Oscar-winning Steve McQueen, but it delivers as a well-made, entertaining as well as thoughtful film.  The main cast is all-female, like Ocean's Eight, but the similarities end there, as the film delves more deeply and seriously into the characters' lives and related political machinations.  Highly recommended.


A group of robbers, led by Harry Rawlings (Neeson), is killed by police when a job goes south.  Harry's wife, Veronica (Davis), and the other widows soon learn about their spouse's secret lives, as one of their targets, a local Chicago political candidate named Manning (Henry) demands restitution.  Manning is running against a green Jack Mulligan (Farrell), who was a friend of Harry's and is next in his family's dynastic line.  Veronica also discovers her late husband's secret notebook of plans, which lays out his would-be next heist - on an all-too-familiar target.  As Manning's brother Jamal (Kaluuya) menaces her with a deadline, Veronica desperately prepares for a literal do-or-die job with her new friends.

Widows has an enormous cast of talented actors, capably led by the titular foursome.  Viola Davis plays the leader of this group, and none could have done it better.  Initially, grieving the loss of her husband and put upon by Manning, her performance resembles her Oscar-winning role in Fences.  She portrays a remarkable combination of strength and vulnerability in quiet moments as she ponders her past life, wiping away tears one moment yet composing herself and striding forth with steely determination the next.  Through her subtle acting, you truly get to know this woman in transition, from dignified yet naive wife of a powerful (yet criminal) man, to a strong, independent woman figuring things out on the fly.  She doesn't instantly transform into a master, and she retains an edge of tension till the end, but also shows her considerable leadership and courage.  Elizabeth Debicki gets the next biggest role, a formerly abused trophy wife, underestimated yet quite intelligent and capable.  The transformation here is a bit more abrupt, but Debicki's performance is great, sharp-edged at times and subtly observed at others.  Cynthia Erivo, joining the group later on, provides some highlights of physicality, though Michelle Rodriguez is given a bit of short shrift (granted, she's probably the least talented of the ensemble).  Colin Farrell does well as a politician who looks the part, but is insecure and overwhelmed by expectations, countered nicely by the smooth and savvy but frustrated Manning played by Brian Tyree Henry.  Neeson is a suitable presence in his flashback scenes, but the standouts in supporting roles are Robert Duvall as Mulligan's father, a declining yet powerful son of a bitch and Daniel Kaluuya as a cruel and unhinged, behind-the-scenes enforcer for Manning.

Widows is really good, an engaging thriller and heist film yet also one with intriguing character work and broader social observations.  Although the film begins with a brief but harrowing scene of Neeson and co. literally going up in flames, most of the tension and excitement in the film is not from the main heist and its preparation, but from the development of the characters and the intriguing web they form.  We get a glimpse of the lives of the widows, pre-doomsday, revealing hurt and neglect.  Even Veronica, treated better than her peers, realizes her husband has left her in an impossible situation.  You see the difficulty in their overcoming the shock, fear, and then mutual suspicion of one another, and then start to come into their own in this bizarre, desperate situation.  The tone is certainly serious, sometimes even dark (typically when the bad guys flex their muscles) but the women's efforts, struggling yet steadily succeeding, keep the film's realism while providing a glimpse of good in the world (at times even optimism).  When it's finally go-time for the heist, you fully believe in the abilities of these four women, but also realize it's not going to be a walk in the park.

While the women deservedly take center stage in adjusting to their new lives and working together to prepare the heist, an intriguing - and narratively adjacent - political battle takes place.  We get to see how this part of Chicago could lead to such criminality in the first place, with ruthless leaders lording over desperate poverty.  Farrell's Mulligan is caught between a young man's idealistic vision and his family's darker, dirtier political reality.  A genius, single camera shot from the hood of his car shows his path from a campaign stop at a broken down neighborhood to arrive just minutes later at his well-tended, fortress-like mansion.  Manning, the challenger, has noble intentions, too, but is already mired in tar, too, from shocking displays from his cousin to a humorous yet depressingly cynical negotiation with a local pastor.  The heist is almost an escape from this all too-realistic, everyday war, and does not take its time in showy, extravagant sets.  Rather, it bursts from the darkness, moving with deliberate speed and quickly on to an inevitable yet well-deserved conclusion.

***

Widows is a great film, one of those that so well straddles the line between artistic, Oscar-awards style and good Hollywood entertainment.  Comparisons with Ocean's Eight, the other heist movie this year featuring a female ensemble, are natural, but fortunately they are so different that each stands by itself.  Ocean's Eight is more typical Hollywood, quite a bit funnier and showier, while Widows is more serious, focused on the characters and background rather than the action of the heist. They do both move along with a good pace, while still allowing the actors plenty of time to shine outside the action.  Hopefully more films like Widows are coming, both entertaining and well-made artistic pieces, as the season of Oscar-hyped movies arrives.  As you begin the holidays, try to get out to see this movie - and if you can't, at least check it out on Netflix.




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Overlord

Score:  B+

Directed by Julius Avery
Starring Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier, and Pilou Asbaek
Running time: 110 minutes
Rated R

Long Story Short:  Overlord brings the gritty, realistic war drama of recent classics into contact with a taste of Hollywood horror, and it works.  A cast of unknowns, mostly playing WWII soldiers, does well and helps set a believable war-time scenario well before anything goes bump in the night.  When it finally does, it's effectively creepy, but overall fairly restrained in the horror department.  Recommended for genre fans, or even those just looking for a well-made action film.


As the sun sets on the day before D-Day, a squad of paratroopers sits nervously in their plane crossing over the English Channel, on the way to a mission behind enemy lines.  Nazi air defenses throw the final approach into chaos, though Private Boyce (Adepo) and a few others manage to land safely in the night.  A small group of survivors find their way to a nearby French town close to their objective: a Nazi radio tower.  A young French woman, Chloe (Ollivier), gives them shelter, and Boyce and others scout the location.  He finds more than just the Nazi military installation, though; beneath a church, bizarre and disturbing experiments lurk.  Short on time, with the D-Day invasion just hours away, the team is forced to reconsider their priorities as they realize the world-changing threat emanating from this small, quiet French village.

Overlord's cast is filled with little-known faces, but the ensemble does impressive work in bringing this historical fantasy to life.  Jovan Adepo plays the primary character, Private Boyce, following him from the chaos of the paratroop landing to the hell that awaits him and his team in France.  Following on a small but nice role in Fences, Adepo is understated but rock solid here as a GI at first frightened and overwhelmed, but who finds his footing as both the personal and broader stakes develop.  This courage under fire is about as deep as the development goes for him, but he makes it convincing, and makes for a very rootable hero to boot.  Wyatt Russell also does quite well as the team's commander.  He plays a rather familiar role as the cold, mission-focused leader, but he does it well, putting his own unique stamp on the part.  Mathilde Ollivier appears at first to be in the damsel-in-distress role as Chloe, but she's also the strikingly strong head of her war-torn household, and believably takes up arms, too, in defending her family.  Pilou Asbaek (GoT's Euron) is more than menacing enough as the main Nazi villain, with a dose of creepiness that helps bridge the war-horror film divide.  In smaller roles as soldiers, Iain de Caestecker gets a brief showcase, and John Magaro helps sell the war setting by looking like he was born to play a soldier (and, in fact, has several other similar credits).

Overlord is a relatively restrained film, considering its war-horror genre combination, and it's very solidly made, even though it doesn't ultimately leave a big impression.  The film is really more accurately described a war movie, with elements of horror and fantasy.  If you've seen productions like Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, you'll be familiar with the overall structure - and, at least for me, also impressed by the level of historical accuracy and realistic filming.  The filmmakers could have lazily used a generic war setting on which to lay their very non-historical fantasy elements, but I appreciated the detail and specificity, and it served to ground the story effectively.  It also helps that there are no star actors involved, allowing you to focus better on the characters (themselves, nobodies) as presented, yet the cast is still perfectly strong as previously mentioned.  Really, just about all major elements of the film are rock solid; the script is good (a minimum of genre cliches) and the pacing is steady, allowing just enough space to consider its mysteries.  The action is well done; most of it, especially the drop over Normandy, depicting the brutality of war without gratuitous gore.  There is at least as much quiet tension as actual shooting, reflecting the practical needs of the soldiers' mission, providing a good contrast in the types of suspense.

When the horror and fantasy elements finally show up - quite a ways into the film - they take full advantage of it while maintaining the overall integrity of the tone.  There are only glimpses and ghoulish groans in the night at first, existing within the war setting.  But while a soldier's abrupt transformation is shocking, the horror elements stay just as creepy as they come out more into the open.  The finale starts to shift the film into more of a Hollywood actioner (though a secondary line definitely keeps the war footing), but it results in a satisfying conclusion.  Still, some things hold it back from being a (multi)genre classic.  The characters are good but not really memorable.  The historical realism is good, too, but blunts the impact at times, even of the intense air drop scene, because we've seen variations of it before.  And there's no real defining moment or scene to bring it all together and/or showcase.  It's content to run a tight ship throughout, and that's alright.

***

Overlord is a quality action/genre film, but certainly not the one I was expecting.  The biggest temptation, it would seem to me, would be to amplify yet also simplify war movie cliches, then bring in that most timeless of Hollywood villains, the Nazi (literal) monsters to slay as the ultimate evil.  So, first and foremost, kudos to the filmmakers for going in pretty much the opposite direction (even if the climax gives in to it a little).  The film does right by war predecessors like SPR, and its essentially no-name cast does a great job bringing both genre elements to life.  Only time will tell, but I don't think it will necessarily stand out as a cult classic.  Still, if you want to see an enjoyable, well-done action film, this is a good choice for a night at the movies - or later on, as a change-up option on Netflix.




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Bohemian Rhapsody

Score:  B-

Directed by Bryan Singer
Starring Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joseph Mazzello
Running time: 134 minutes
Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  Bohemian Rhapsody is a biopic of Queen, the famous rock band and its one-of-a-kind star, Freddie Mercury.  Rami Malek does an outstanding job in the lead role, and the music helps the film ride along perfectly smoothly.  But it is also overwhelmingly cliche, with a script that mostly hampers any attempts the film makes to show the band's true background.  If all you want is pure entertainment, it's just fine, but otherwise, hold off on this.


In 1970, a young British immigrant named Farrokh (Malek) decides to chase his dreams, joining a band named Smile that just lost its lead singer.  The band, renaming itself Queen, struggles along the countryside doing gigs, but gets its big break when manager John Reid (Gillen) discovers them and they sign a contract with the record label empire EMI.  Thus begins a whirlwind decade for Queen, building a strong reputation as performers but also stretching themselves musically even when it puts them in conflict with their business associates trying to maintain the status quo.  The pressures of fame and fortune, along with Farrokh's - now Freddie Mercury - private struggles, eventually begin to pull the band apart.  But a once-in-a-generation event offers the band an opportunity to cast off the mounting wounds and resentments and come together again.

Bohemian Rhapsody boasts a pleasant cast, ranging from a standout lead performance to heavily cliched parts.  Rami Malek stars as Queen's lead singer, Freddie Mercury, and the intensity and commitment of his performance raises the whole film significantly.  Malek bursts with frenzied energy in concert scenes, and is just as focused and passionate in quieter scenes in which only his protuberant eyes show the conflict, hurt, or love he is feeling.  While his development is somewhat simplified and dulled by the script, Malek keeps his superstar character very much the charismatic, intriguing lead he needs to be throughout.  Lucy Boynton plays Mercury's wife, Mary Austin, and does pretty well with what she's given: plenty of stereotypical rockstar-girlfriend stuff, but she takes advantage of the more interesting anger-to-acceptance-to-warmth transition later on.  Allen Leech, as Mercury's personal manager turned lover, Paul, goes too far into villainous territory, suckered in by the script's many minefields.  The rest of the Queen band does a very solid, understated job, showing genuine, warm camaraderie (though the conflicts often feel contrived).  There are plenty of other small parts, notably Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones) as Queen's slick manager, and particularly Mike Myers as a comedically idiotic EMI executive.

Bohemian Rhapsody is an entertaining biopic driven by a star performance that goes down smooth - but at the same time, it's too smooth, an artificial and cliched journey of just another rock band.  Even if you know nothing about Queen beyond their music before you see the film (like me), you'll know pretty much how this goes.  Working class kid decides to leap into the world of rock that he's admired from afar, gets a girlfriend as he becomes cool in his ragtag new outfit, surges to stardom on a big break, then deals with intra-band turmoil before rediscovering the magic by the end.  Admittedly, even when you see it coming, much of this is still fun or at least diverting, particularly when driven by some nice acting and a (mostly) up-tempo pacing.  The filmmakers also wisely throw in plenty of musical scenes - not only serving as interludes between plot sections, but of course, splurging on why we're interested in Freddie and Queen in the first place.  My favorite section of the film is when it effectively combines the music with the obligatory plot points, in the recording of their masterpiece titular song in seclusion, just the band enjoying themselves and producing great humor along with the tunes.  However, the script is criminally cliched throughout the film, leading not just to the ruin of a number of scenes' sincerity and believability, but ultimately betraying the band itself through the loss of whatever unique spirit they surely had.  Nearly every scene is constructed according to what the audience expects to see rather than what it needed to show (if it was needed at all), and the dialogue is at times so bad that even Malek can't bring himself to convey it convincingly.  It is only in the music, then, that the film seems to capture what Queen really was, and beyond that, the audience is left to blindly speculate just how much of the rest of the story gets to the truth.

***

Bohemian Rhapsody, while offering some pleasing elements, ultimately serves as a disappointment in the effort as a rock band biopic.  Although I haven't read any individual reviews, its 61% score on Rotten Tomatoes would seem to reflect this.  Truly, if all you're looking for is a familiar, undemanding story with a great lead performance and music, then this is a perfectly good choice, and  a pretty entertaining one.  But if you're looking for a great film, and/or as a Queen fan, looking for a complex, nuanced take on your favorite band, then this will leave you wanting.  I know very little about their history, but have been told that the film deviates in a number of crucial ways from reality, a reality apparently not convenient to the flow the filmmakers wanted.  You're not going to find anything else like it in theaters so give it a try if it's what you're in the mood for - otherwise, I suggest waiting for Netflix, if at all.



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The Old Man & the Gun

Score:  A-

Directed by David Lowery
Starring Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek, Casey Affleck
Running time: 93 minutes
Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  Robert Redford steps in front of the camera one last time in this crime adventure, co-starring Sissy Spacek and Casey Affleck.  The actors are all great, of course, and the premise is more than a little nod to Redford's career.  But the filmmakers get the chance to present a fully developed - and balanced - story here, both the highs and the lows, and that makes it a worthy tribute.  Highly recommended.


Forrest Tucker (Redford), a genial older man, enters a bank in the early 1980s, and calmly walks back out with quite a bit of money that isn't his.  As he listens via an earpiece to the police frantically but belatedly spring into action, he begins to cruise out of town when he notices a woman broken down by the side of the road.  Forrest then takes Jewel (Spacek) to a local diner, and they find themselves mutually charmed.  Forrest continues seeing her, while also "touring" a number of other states to visit their banks.  Detective John Hunt (Affleck) senses something deeper going on than just an average bank robbery in his town.  He begins to discover the trail of robberies by an unassuming - even gentlemanly - criminal, and takes it on as a personal challenge.  Still, as determined as Hunt is to catch him, Forrest's largest obstacle to freedom may be his own past.

The Old Man & the Gun has a small cast, choosing to focus intently on its legendary leading man.  Robert Redford has said this will be the final role in his long and celebrated acting career, and the role itself is a salute to his previous work.  He clearly relishes this final opportunity to play a roguishly charming outlaw, someone who seems so genuinely nice and decent that it's no surprise that the various bank employees can't help but give him their money.  The camera lingers on Redford throughout the film, almost asking the audience to see in his lined but defiant face the earlier days and journeys that brought this actor/character to his final adventure.  Sissy Spacek does a great job as well, as his romantic interest, Jewel.  Her role - and performance - is essential in holding the film back from flying off into sentimental hero worship.  While the veteran actors have an easy rapport and banter in a realistic, almost improvised manner, their characters are also different enough that there remains an invisible yet distinct barrier between them, too.  In the third significant role, Casey Affleck also does fine work as the detective on the case.  The film wisely does not spend too much time on him, but does give him enough to show the complexity of his work-home life, and his awakening from a professional stupor.  Not flashy, intense, or even portrayed as the "good guy", he brings more groundedness via the law-and-order inevitability he represents.

The Old Man & the Gun succeeds as both a restrained yet fun crime comedy as well as a touching and well-executed send off for one of Hollywood's most famous actors of all time.  Based loosely on a true story, the film wisely does not really focus too much on the ostensible main action, the brazen robberies of banks by an old man (and his two equally-elderly conspirators).  We do get to see several of the crimes, which are really pretty simple and emphasize the irresistible charm that Redford commands, and the transition of the hapless managers and tellers from customer service to incredulity as reality dawns on them.  However, it's the moments around these crimes that get more emphasis.  Forrest's burgeoning relationship with Jewel is the center of this, as you watch him debate whether he can continue this while carrying on as usual, or whether this is his opportunity to finally get out of the "game".  While this all lends a fun, Hollywood-fantasy aspect to the film, it is smartly countered with the grim elements of reality, too.  Detective Hunt's investigation, while amusing at times as the "victims" are interrogated, shows the steady march to justice.  And it becomes more and more clear, to Forrest and the audience, that he really can't have it both ways.  Trying to do so gets people hurt, Forrest himself included, and even his aura of invincibility and pleasantness drops at times.  It is this balanced approach that makes the film a worthy capstone to Redford's career.  If there were no challenges, or Forrest forever escaped the law, it would be a superficial and insincere ending for him. But the film waits until near the end, wisely, to explore Forrest's life of crime - and incarceration - using (subtle) snapshots from previous moment's in Redford's career to illustrate the journey in a way possible only for this film and this actor.

***

The Old Man & the Gun has a premise that almost screams for awards attention - but its success not only validates that attention, it shows a triumph of walking a sneakily perilous tight rope.  Redford could easily, I'm sure, have taken complete control of this film, and used it to glorify himself, results on the film itself be damned.  But I get the strong impression that he stepped back and allowed the filmmakers to create and enact their own overall vision for the film - which, of course, included a certain honoring of the actor himself, but which came about more naturally this way.  This allowed also for other real characters to develop around him - Spacek and Affleck's characters, specifically, are no mere stereotyped stand-ins.  Finally, it all wraps up in a tidy 90 minutes or so, not overstaying its welcome.  Highly recommended, particularly of course for Redford fans.



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Bad Times at the El Royale

Score:  B

Directed by Drew Goddard
Starring Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Chris Hemsworth
Running time: 141 minutes
Rated R

Long Story Short:  Drew Goddard gives a try at the neo-noir, taking cues from Tarantino in setting up an interesting roster of characters in a mysterious and tension-packed environment.  The cast mostly does a great job, particularly relative newcomer and virtuoso Cynthia Erivo.  But while the first half is a great build up, it borrows a little too heavily from others and its rewards diminish as it goes on.  Worthy of a theater trip if you're in the mood, but otherwise probably a better choice on Netflix.


Sitting right on the border of California and Nevada, the El Royale hotel, its glory days long past, finds an odd handful of visitors arrive one day.  They include a drawling, upbeat salesman named Laramie (Hamm), Catholic priest Flynn (Bridges), singer Darlene (Erivo), and hippy Emily (Johnson).  Not long after settling in, each commences his or her own mission.  Forgetful Father Flynn is looking for something, but is bewitched when he hears Darlene's lovely voice.  Laramie has a job on the side to take care of, and Emily is not traveling alone.  The El Royale hotel holds its own secrets, too, and soon its unwitting guests begin to grapple not just with each other, but with the danger lurking in their very surroundings.

Bad Times at the El Royale is elevated by a diverse and creative cast, with performances both familiar and revelatory.  There is no one, true lead, so I'll start with Jeff Bridges as Father Flynn.  He is a welcome presence as always, easily nailing his role's affable, if occasionally feeble-minded air.  Of course, as with the rest of the cast, there is more to him than meets the eye, but the only other thing I'll say about him is that he has good chemistry with his odd bedfellow Darlene.  Broadway star Cynthia Erivo is the highlight of the film as Darlene, particularly her show-stopping renditions of classic hits like "You Can't Hurry Love".  But her regular acting is just as impressive, too, quietly and painfully victimized in one scene yet hanging tougher and calmer than any of her cast mates in the next.  Jon Hamm gets to show off his impressive range, particularly early in the film, and was a great choice for the role.  Dakota Johnson also does quite fine work, an alluring hippy who might have the poorest poker face, but when she gets the screen to herself, manages to portray a complex, intriguing private side.  Chris Hemsworth finds himself far from the mythical Thor, though by now his comedic talent, here as a cult leader, is no surprise.  His character is also quite cruel and manipulative, though, and Hemsworth doesn't quite land it.  Maybe he's just too nice? - at any rate, he overplays it.

Bad Times at the El Royale is an entertaining and solidly-made film, but it takes a little too much from other recent noirs and flails in the landing.  I can't help but compare the film - and even did so while watching it - to some of Quentin Tarantino's work.  The colorful characters, the specificity of the surroundings (like the frequently-playing jukebox), nonlinear narrative, spasms of violence, and even the old-school, brief chapter headings constantly reminded me of the auteur.  Problem is, it's pretty damn tough to beat Tarantino at his own game.  The script is good, but not as sharp and unique.  There are some fun and strange encounters, but nothing like Tarantino's finest, razor-sharp scenes of dialogue.  And the most exciting element of the film - guessing how all the seemingly-incongruous parts fit together, or just waiting for it - results in a bit of a letdown (IMO) by being too straightforward and/or cliche (despite this, I don't want to spoil it for you).  That might all sound harsh, but the majority of the film is still pretty fun - especially the first hour or so.  Goddard turns the tricky task of making the exposition-laden setup interesting, thanks largely to honed-in performances from the stars, but also to developing the setting of the hotel itself well.  Then, as we start to get the cover lifted from these characters, the fun really revs up, allowing the action to both get started in a hurry yet also take its time via the nonlinear, multiple perspective style.  The soundtrack is also great, featuring plenty of classic rock hits - as well as Erivo's fantastic performances.  While I was disappointed with how the film developed at around the midway point and on, the stronger early parts still stand well on their own.

***

Bad Times is overall a fun time, even if this neo-noir ends up a bit of a disappointment, too.  Perhaps those more familiar with the genre won't experience this, but I couldn't help but make those Tarantino comparisons (though when it's at its best, these fell away).  If this doesn't happen to you (or you haven't seen much Tarantino anyway), the experience may be even better.  Watch it at least for the first half - and you also may enjoy the second better than me - as well as for the cast, particularly Erivo. I would have preferred the filmmakers use this premise to take new or more interesting turns, but the result is still just fine.  Theater viewing is optional, but it could make a perfectly nice Netflix some evening.




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First Man

Score:  A

Directed by Damien Chazelle
Starring Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Kyle Chandler
Running time: 141 minutes
Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  Damien Chazelle's follow up to La La Land is about Neil Armstrong - not just his famed moon landing, but also his personal life.  Gosling joins Chazelle again, and he's a great choice for the role, as is Claire Foy as his wife, Janet.  The film does a great job showing just how tough that mission to the moon was, on the ground as well as through a new, tangible sense of the perils of journeying to space.  By looking in on his home life, too, the film offers an intriguing take on how one man was pushed to legendary success as well as ordinary heartbreak.  Highly recommended.


In the early 1960s, Neil Armstrong (Gosling) is a struggling NASA test pilot.  He is going through deep personal turmoil as he watches his young daughter lose a battle with cancer.  However, he is accepted for Project Gemini - a crucial step for the ultimate goal of landing on the moon - and moves his wife and son with him to Houston.  There he befriends several peers, and they (and their families) help each other through an arduous journey as NASA seeks to make a breakthrough that will push the U.S. space program beyond the Soviets'.  Armstrong's skill and tenacity set him apart over the years, and he is named the commander of Apollo 11, the first lunar landing.  The designation is far from a victory lap for Armstrong, though: his continued grief is an unpredictable, double-edged sword, and regular close calls clearly show how thin a line exists between triumph and disaster in outer space.

First Man benefits from a strong, fairly small cast of men - plus one crucial woman's role.  Ryan Gosling was a clear choice for the role of Armstrong: not only did he work with director Chazelle on La La Land, he has proven his skill in quiet, introspective performances like this one.  He is also convincing as the driven, legendary astronaut, fully prepared and focused, though he can't help but laugh casually with his team members, too, a bit of the hotshot coming through.  It's actually his stoic father-husband role that is ultimately the weaker half.  He does a good job - perhaps too good a job - at realism here; his evolution is complex, but also frustratingly opaque and unresolved (like reality).  Claire Foy receives a substantial role as Janet Armstrong, and she does a great job with it.  While we don't get to see her personal ambitions, she fully inhabits a steely, perceptive, deeply compassionate wife and mother.  She shows this in even the briefest moments, but also gets to shine when storming to NASA HQ to check on her husband's status, and when powerfully forcing Neil to finally confront his deeply buried personal fears - and responsibility.  All other roles are purely supporting, though several help create a vivid personal and professional environment for Neil's story.  Of particular interest are Kyle Chandler's all-business yet caring NASA leader, Jason Clarke's friend-and-mentor Ed White, and Corey Stoll's amusingly socially-oblivious Buzz Aldrin.

First Man is a great biopic, one that makes the legendary lunar landing fresh with its focus on detailing the perils and struggles for Armstrong both personally and professionally.  While it is not as hyper-focused on a short period as similar masterpieces Lincoln and Selma, First Man wisely avoids using too broad a canvass to tell its story about Neil Armstrong.  The story begins with Neil near a breaking point, though he doesn't realize it, in both his NASA career and his home life: a key failed mission (following a string of disappointments), and a daughter whose illness resists all solutions.  This is the situation that launches him on a multi-year mission all the way to the moon, but the film does a great job to show that what is fueling him is also, like his rockets, dangerously unstable at times.  The film flows in a naturalistic way through its two-and-a-half hours, alternating focused, extended scenes (mostly Neil's NASA missions) with snippets, individually random but collectively filling in the portrait of a life (mostly his personal life, here).  It can be difficult to decipher the dialogue, often mumbled or sped through in this very non-staged style, but it's really the overall mood and direction of the drama that's important, so it's not a big deal.  The film's final, and one of its most poignant, scene has not a word uttered at all to emphasize that point.

The highlights to me were the NASA missions, which had me clinging to my seat: from the opening test flight gone wrong, to the first Gemini mission that seems a success (until it isn't), and even the famous Apollo 11 flight.  They are mostly filmed from inside the cramped vehicles with Neil, and you truly get the sense that he is riding buckets of bolts.  The camera itself shakes violently with the vessel, showing how helpless the passengers often are; metal creaks, groans and rattles ominously, straining to hold together against unbelievably powerful forces.  Crucial moments and circumstances on the mission are given great context by earlier moments on the ground, but not in an awkward way.  At times this is too much for the quieter, gentler home life scenes to compete with, but Foy does a great job to provide at least a few big impressions, as mentioned previously.  Finally, the journey is enriched by a great soundtrack whose repetitiveness but quiet urgency helps sustain that tone in the film; thankfully it does not succumb to cliched, triumphant swells.  Just making it through - whether on the ground at home or in the eerie quiet of outer space - is enough.

***

First Man is a great start to the season of Oscar hopeful film releases.  So many promising elements came together - Oscar-nominated director Chazelle reuniting with his lead actor from La La Land in Gosling, the biopic genre that has been so successful recently, etc.  But great promise is no guarantee of success, and the filmmakers deserve much credit for developing a focused, intriguing vision for the film as well as the actors for bringing it to life.  This only reinforces my interest in closely following great directors and their muses (when are your next films coming out, Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve??) and adds Chazelle to that list.  I recommend this for everyone.




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Night School

Score:  B

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee
Starring Kevin Hart, Tiffany Haddish, Taran Killam, Rob Riggle
Running time:  111 minutes
Rated PG-13

Long Story Short:  Night School teams up two of the hottest comedians, Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish, in a goofy but relevant premise.  It does not adhere at all to the modern comedy tone, and replaces self-aware cleverness with riotous, simple yet strong verbal sparring to keep you laughing.  A strong supporting cast helps drive the film.  Recommended.


Teddy (Hart) is living his dream, albeit precariously - he is a clever if modestly-paid barbecue salesman, and he has just engaged a successful, beautiful woman (Echikunwoke) who believes his tall tales of business brilliance.  However, an accident leaves Teddy jobless and he quickly finds that, as a high school dropout, his options are extremely limited.  A friend promises a lucrative financial job for him if he can just get his GED, so he signs up for night school at a local high school, expecting a quick and easy process.  But he confronts an all-business, tough-as-nails instructor (Haddish), and an old nemesis (Killam) from school who's now the principal.  Teddy soon begins to strain under keeping the illusion alive to his fiancee while also diving back into the same problems he confronted in high school.  Fail at one, and he fears the rest of his life will soon follow.

Night School has an impressive comedic ensemble that goes beyond the two headlining stars.  Kevin Hart, one of my favorite contemporary comedians, does quite well in the lead role as Teddy.  This might be the first time I've seen him in a more conventional, solo lead role, and he impresses.  It's often hard for this type of role to standout comedically, as it's usually saddled with anchoring the story, but fortunately Hart is blessed with the virtuoso talent at performing required to overcome that.  Tiffany Haddish's role is smaller than I expected, but she does very well at delivering her trademark hilariously tough attitude while maintaining believability and sincerity in her narrative role as night school teacher.  Taran Killam, a former (and underrated) SNL cast member, is sneakily good as the villainous principal, adjusting his usual style to match his co-stars' and the movie itself.  The supporting cast gets a surprisingly large role, overall, perhaps expanded during filming due to how good they are.  Rob Riggle, Romany Malco, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Anne Winters match Killam's skill in lining up with the tone of the film, arguably even playing a big part in shaping it themselves.

Night School is a throwback, broad comedy that works perfectly well in that role, though is ultimately also somewhat limited by it as well.  I think it's important to emphasize that this is not the stylistic direction that most contemporary popular comedies have been going, but the unapologetic, back-to-basics tone is quite welcome.  The effort could have resulted in a train wreck, had the writing either been lazy or tried to sneak back to the current norms, or if the cast had not been fully committed to just having a good time and leaving their egos in their trailers.  While it gets off to a bit of a bumpy start (this may have just been my adjusting to the film's tone), the film quickly settles into a nice pace.  Even Hart's performance is a little off at first, but once he gets to meet the other main players, particularly Haddish and his night school classmates, it all begins to jell immediately.  Most of the film's humor comes from the somewhat simplistic but well-crafted dialogue; still, there are also some standout sets, which are particularly important in this kind of comedy.  These include the night-schoolers attempt to break in at, well, night to steal an upcoming test, and an exasperated Haddish literally whipping Hart - wearing a Christian chicken suit (long story) - back to his senses.  But the funniest to me was an indulgently long, clearly improvised introduction of the night school class, both playing with stereotypes in a funny but sensitive way as well as piling on Hart as a clueless but charming victim which is where he shines brightest.  It's probably a little too long, but the film keeps the plotting fairly minimal while also ending on a surprisingly poignant message about the strength of those whole struggle on the fringes of society.

***

Night School is another pleasant entry in what has been a very strong year for comedies.  Critics, unfortunately, must not have seen the same movie that I did.  I truly think it comes down to expectations: they simply were thrown by its simple, back-to-basics style, significantly different from other entries in the genre.  And I might be overrating it a touch myself, having seen it in a theater full of people who found it absolutely hilarious (and it was contagious).  But beyond even the quality of the film - which is pretty high anyway - I see this variety in style to be all to the good, rather than a negative.  Just like we all hope to see more original stories and ideas from Hollywood, this too is a great way to keep things fresh and interesting.  I recommend this seeing this movie, particularly with a packed audience, but just keep in mind it may not be what you expect and I think you'll enjoy it.



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